Davies: "Timid" Bautista overreacted to Portugal run-in

Chaz Davies believes Ducati World Superbike teammate Alvaro Bautista overreacted to their Turn 1 clash in the opening race last weekend at Portimao, describing the Spaniard as "timid".

The two works Ducati riders almost came to blows at the start of the Saturday race at the Portuguese track as Davies dived to the inside, forcing Bautista to sit up and avoid a crash and dropping the erstwhile points leader well down the order.

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"At Laguna it was quite a harsh move [by Razgatlioglu], which was quite a big deal because he ended up crashing," underlined Davies.

"But I didn’t see [him make] the same comments [that he did] about me [here], comparing the two incidents. I felt like Laguna was way worse an incident."

Chaz Davies, Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / LAT Images

Gear shift, set-up issues hamper Davies

After finishing second in the opener, Davies endured a difficult pair of Sunday races at Portimao, ending up 10th in the Superpole Race and then a lowly 16th in the finale.

The Welshman explained that a broken gear shifter was the cause for his lowly finish in the second full-distance race of the weekend, although he admitted he was also hamstrung by "wrong turns" with the set-up of his Panigale V4 R bike.

"It didn’t give me the same feedback as [Saturday]," he said. "In hindsight maybe we should have stuck with what we had, but we’re still learning."

With three rounds to go, Davies lies seventh in the riders' standings, almost 200 points down on Bautista, but only 45 points away from Yamaha's Alex Lowes in third.

Asked if he could still target third in the points behind Rea and Bautista, Davies replied: "I’m not even looking. If it comes to me, it comes to me.

"My goal is just to be competitive on the remaining circuits to the end of the year. If we lose points with technical [problems] and bad races, then so be it. It was really good to have that podium here [on Saturday] and prove we’re on the right track."